198 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECrS JOURNAL. 



[April* 



fluxed state, and to the particular action consequent tlipreupon. The | 

 oumber and variety of articles nianufaclured in flint glass are great, and \ 

 require considerable practical experience un the part of the workmen. It I 

 is impossible to describe the manner of operating, which appears even to | 

 those who have often seen it almost magical. It is certainly surprising to 

 see an apparently opaque and fluid body in a moment become tran.'^parent 

 auil solid, and, whilst undergoing this rapid change, to see it take beauty 

 of form. 



Culournl Glass. — The substances used for producing coloured glass are 

 the metallic <ixides, the quantity being proportioned to the depth of colour 

 we desire to obtain. Tor blue glass we use oxide of cobalt ; this produces 

 a rich colour : the material, however, being expensive, it is seldom used 

 by the glassmaker alone, but generally with an equal quantity of manga- 

 nese ; this materially allects the richness of the colour, (ireen is obtained 

 from the oxides of copper and iron, mixed, the protoxide of copper and 

 the peroxide of iron : equal quantities may be used, the proportions being 

 varied according to the tint desired to be obtained : the copper produces a 

 blue-tinted green, and the iron liie yelloit tint. Purple is obtained from 

 the oxide of manganese ; the purer this substance is, the liner will be the 

 colour. The pyrolucite already referred to, especially when used in small 

 quantities, gives a beautiful and delicate amethyst colour. Ordinary yel- 

 low is got from carburnte of iron and oxide of manganese. Ruhy is ob- 

 tained from the oxide of gold, called the cassius precipitate ; it is a colour 

 which is neither obtained nor retained with any certainty — in fact, the mo- 

 dern glassmaker is quite at a loss for this colour. There can be no doubt 

 the ancients manufactured ruby of a much finer colour than any now 

 made, from suboxide of copper ; this art has been lost for centuries : the 

 difficulty is, the preventing this substance from peroxidieiug. The oxides 

 of uranium produce beautiful tints in yellow and green. Copper scales 

 give nzure blue : oxide of chromium, emerald green. Opaque glass is pro- 

 tluced by the addition of phosphate of lime, arsenic, and other substances. 

 The addition of many of the metallic oxides renders glass less ductile ; 

 and in making use of these it is always well to employ an additional quan- 

 tity of lead. We often hear of the superiority of the colour of ancient 

 sheet glass to the modern, and are bound to conclude, when we see, par- 

 ticularly in church windows, the diflerence, that there is good ground for 

 the assertion. With the exception of ruby, the modern colours are all 

 finer than the antique. I speak of body coluiirs — that is, glass made of 

 coloured mixtures, called pot metal; but this is seldom used, all our mo- 

 dern church windows being made of while glass stained with metallic 

 colours; this saves trouble a!id expense in the fitting. Glass of various 

 colours in the same jiieie is ohtained by casing one metal or glass with 

 another. A small quantity of one colour having been gathered, it is blown 

 into a small ball, and dipped into a pot of a ditferent colour; this being 

 rolled on au iron slab, so that an equal thickness of the second covers the 

 first, the ball is a trille enlarged by blowing, and may be dipped into a 

 third and fourth colour. Care must be taken that the character of these 

 different glasses exactly agree, that the contraction in cooling may be 

 alike. 



RAILWAY PROCEEDINGS. 



Selections from the decisions of the Sub-Committees on Standing Orders. 

 House of Commons — Session 1846. 



Gazette Notices.— In the Committee on the Runcorn and Prestonbrook 

 Railway, it was slated by the solicitor for the bill that the notices had only 

 been twice published in the Gazette. He had delivered the notices at the 

 Gazette oflice on October 2S, with instructions for three insertions. Mr. 

 Watts, the editor of the Gazette, said he found by an entry in his book that 

 the notice had been withdrawn. Has no means of knowing by whom it 

 was withdrawn. Blr. Turner said he had given no instructions for the 

 withdrawal of the notice. Mr. Watts said it might have been a mistake, 

 arising from the pressure of business at that time. The committee decided 

 that in this instance the standing orders were not complied with. 



PoBi.ic Roads. — In the Committee on the Wexford, Carlow, and 

 Dublin Junction Railway, an allegation was made that a public pre- 

 sented county road, in the townland of Killurin, was described to be in 

 the ownership of the Earl of Arran, whereas in fact it was a public road 

 nnder the jurisdiction of the grand jury and road surveyor of the county of 

 Wexford. The allegation turned on the ownership of these roads, whether 

 in fact the right owners had been entered in the book of reference. The 

 chairman observed, what is intended is, that the fie in the land is in certain 

 other parties, but the public have a right of road. That comes to the state 

 of English ro ids. There the property is not in the surveyors or trustees. 

 A mine under the road does not belong to the trustees. The practice in 

 England is to treat the ownership of the surface as that which entitles the 

 parties to he served. The question is, whether there is anything which 

 «utitled you to take the Irish roads out of this condition. Me cannot draw 

 any distinction between the cases. If so, you ought to give notice to the 

 persons in Ireland, who answer the same description there, as the surveyors 

 of roads in England. As regards these nllegaiions, we shall report that 

 ibe standing orders have not been complied with, inasmuch as the grand 

 jury of the county of Wexford have not been inserted in the book of refer- 

 ence as owners of certain roads particularly specified. 



Ow.sERSHip OF Lands. — Id the Committee (No. 2) on the Glasgow and 

 Ayr Railway, the petitioner opposing the bill alleged that in several in- 

 stances the promoters had inserted, in their book of reference, the name of 

 the reputed and substantial owner of the land, in cases where there was a 

 superior owner or feu lord, to whom a merely nominal payment, in respect 

 of the land, was annually made. It was submitted that the book of refer- 

 ence ought to have contained the names of such feu lords. The chairman 

 remarked on that point, that the committee had always considered the 

 reputed owner, in such cases, as sulticiently the owner for the purposes of 

 the book of reference, and not the superior lord, who, in most cases, had 

 only a peppercorn rent reserved to him. 



Notices. — In the Committee (No. 3) on the Midland and Bradford 

 Railway, the petitioner opposing alleged that the Gazette notices bad beea 

 given for six lines of railway, and the bill was only for one. In the 

 cases decided last sessions, the Direct Northern, the Wells and Dereham, 

 and Gojle and Doncaster Uailvvays, where they came to Parliament 

 for a shorter line than they had given notice of applying for, were 

 held as not having complied with the standing orders. The promoters 

 contended that the cases quoted were not analogous to the present. The 

 notices given announced the intention of the promoters to apply for powers 

 to construct six railways, and this might be called the first of the series. 

 In the case of the Direct Northern, who gave notice of making a railway 

 from London to ^'ork, and afterwards only came for powers to make a line 

 from Cambridge to York, a landowner on the line between Cambridge and 

 York might be willing to concur in the whole line, but might object to have 

 his land cat up by the shorter line. The committee were of opinion that 

 there had been a sullicienl compliance with the standing orders in this case 

 upon that point. 



fl'lTiiDRAWAL 01' Petition. — In the Committee on the Grand Union 

 Railway au opposition was about to be entered into by Mr. Thomas, when 

 Mr. Burke objected, as the petitioner had withdrawn his consent after the 

 presentation of the petition. It was contended on the other side that it was 

 not competent to any person to withdraw a consent once given. The 

 chairman after conferring with the chairman of another committee stated, 

 that the committee had given their best consideration to this case, and they 

 regretted that the standing order No. 9 was not more clearly worded. If 

 they abided strictly by its words they would not decide according to the 

 intention of the house, as there would be constantly raised questions as to 

 the manner in which consents had been obtained. Their decision therefore 

 was, that it should be in future in the power of any petitioner to withdraw 

 his consent to the petition. The petition was then withdrawn. 



Levelling Books. — The Committee (No. 2,) sitting on the Edinbnrgh 

 and Glasgow and Dumbartonshire Junction Railway, in a case of dispute 

 as to the correctness of the levels, decided that the promoters of the Bill 

 should produce the notes of the levels. 



Parish BorNDAP.iEs — In the same Committee, and on the same Bill, a 

 petition alleged that in the plans deposited with the sheriff clerks of Dum- 

 bartonshire and Lanark, the parish boundaries of the parish of Dumbar- 

 ton were not written in words, whereas the boundaries had been so written 

 in the plans lodged at the Private Bill-oflice. This allegation was sus- 

 tained, as was also the second, which had reference to a discrepancy in 

 the plans lodged with the sheriff.clerk of Dumbartonshire, and that de- 

 posited at the Private Bill-office, in regard to another omission in the 

 county plans of the words " parish boundary." 



Cross Sections of Roads. — In the Committee (No. 7) on the Cornwall 

 Railway, the opponents to the bill objected that the 42nd of the standing 

 orders had not been complied with in respect of a proposed alteration of a 

 turnpike road not having been shown in figures nor on the cross sections. — 

 Mr. Brunei stated that any surveyor orengineer would understand the sec- 

 tion. The Chairman, having inquired whether there was any case reported, in 

 which, after argument, it bad been held that the standing orders had been 

 complied with, although such alteration or inclination had not been set 

 down in figures, ordered the room to be cleared, and upon the doors being 

 re-opened, staled, that the Committee were of opinion that the standing 

 orders had not been complied with in respect of any of these cross sections. 

 Petitioners. — The Committee (No. 4) on the Dublin and Enniskillen 

 Railway decided that it was absolutely necessary, in order to comply with 

 the standing order No. "J, that the petitioner, authorising an agent to ap- 

 pear for him, should be proved to have been cognizant of the actual allega- 

 tions contained in the petition. In the absence of this proof the petition 

 could not be entertained. 



Withduawal or a Portion of a Line after Notice. — In the Com- 

 mittee (No. 2) on the Northumberland and Lancashire Railway, two im- 

 portant allegations were made against the bill ; the effect of tl\e Jirst was 

 substantially this— that whereas the promoters of the bill gave notice in 

 the newspapers, and to the petitioner, amongst others, of their intention to 

 make a railway, commencing at a point called A, and terminating at a 

 point called C, with divers branches therefrom ; but their petition only 

 asked for the authority of the House to bring in a bill for executing a 

 portion of that work only, and that a very small portion. The promoters 

 had, in fact, greatly modified their original project, and had abandoned a 

 considerable portion of it, but had not given fresh notices to the landowners 

 on the line or in the newspapers of such modification and abandonment. 

 After the question had been argued at some length, the Chairman an- 

 nounced that the standing orders had been complied widi. The second 

 allegation was that a sura equal to one-tenth part of the amount subscribed 

 in the subscription contract deed had not been deposited with the Court of 



